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fajrdrakoBuffy 3x05 - Homecoming
~ ~ ~
The notion of "Homecoming" as in "Homecoming Queen" is a strange and foreign concept to me, familiar only from American TV shows. I don't even know what the word actually means. Never thought about it before.
This seems to be a continuation of the theme "How Buffy wants to be normal" and as such, I didn't feel very sympathetic with her in it.
~ ~ ~
The notion of "Homecoming" as in "Homecoming Queen" is a strange and foreign concept to me, familiar only from American TV shows. I don't even know what the word actually means. Never thought about it before.
This seems to be a continuation of the theme "How Buffy wants to be normal" and as such, I didn't feel very sympathetic with her in it.
- Why did Scott think Buffy would think the Homecoming Dance was corny?
- Buffy seems to take a certain perverse pleasure in telling Angel she's "involved with someone". Even though she is exaggerating. "Someone I can count on." That's sort of ... rubbing it in. All the things that happened.
- And of course, immediately afterwards, like an act of karma, Scott breaks up with her. No Homecoming Dance after all.
- We meet the Mayor. The Mayor is... strange. Worried about clean hands. OCD? No, just strange.
- So Buffy and Faith fight - cool. And Faith suggests, "We'll find a couple studs, we'll use 'em and... discard 'em. That's always fun." Seems, first, a ratherstrange view of humanity, and second, a contrast to Buffy, who is timelessly obsessed with Angel. (Despite what she said.)
- I love Buffy's approach to Ms Moran for a character reference, who doesn't even remember her.
- Cordelia and Buffy bicker. Buffy is moved to run for Homecoming Queen. I roll my eyes in... whatever is the opposite of sympathy. Ego games! Vanity! But I like the line, "You've awakened the Prom Queen within."
- The strange friend of Mr. Trick says, "I am Kulak, of the Miquot Clan." Eek - another Evil Immortal in the Highlander style!
- Willow and Xander dance. They kiss. I liked it better when Xander kissed Cordelia. Oz is so much nicer than Xander. Oh, Willow, Willow, bad idea.
- It gives Xander the opportunity for a good line, though: "It's a clothes fluke, that's what it is. And there'll be no more fluking."
- Kulak's trick with the blades in his arms is very like the blades in the Sleeper's arms in Torchwood. (Yes, before you remind me, I know which came first.)
- Buffy even pressures Willow. She has no shame.
- So Buffy and Cordelia are sent alone together in the limo and anyone could guess this is a Really Bad Idea and one of them really, really should Get Out and Walk.
- The girls are hunted. I liked that part.
- I like the Germans. They have style.
- It's nice that Giles says, "I want to be here when when Buffy... Well, uh, however the thing turns out for her."
- Interesting that, when in danger, Cordelia thinks of Xander.
- Okay, finally, a great bit of dialogue:
Cordelia: Why is it every time I go somewhere with you, it always ends in violence and terror?
Buffy: Welcome to my life.
Cordelia: I don't want to be in your life. I want to be in my life. - Buffy tries to explain to Cordelia why she wants to be Homecoming Queen and I still don't get it.
- Cordelia does well:
Lyle: I'm gonna kill both you Slayers for this! You hear me?
Cordelia: I hear you, you redneck moron. You got a dress that goes with that hat? - So Trick goes to work for Mayor Wilkins. Cool.
- I like the trick with the toilet paper that gets rid of the Germans. Very cool.
- So neither Cordelia nor Buffy becomes Homecoming Queen. Can't say I was disappointed! The girls who won seemed sort of vacuous.
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Spatula attack!
Date: 2008-06-02 02:39 am (UTC)Mayor Mayor Mayor Mayor Mayor Mayor Mayor.
LET NO ONE TELL YOU ANYTHING OF THE MAYOR.
Re: Spatula attack!
Date: 2008-06-02 02:48 am (UTC)After all the lame villainous vampires we've had like the Master and the Anointed One, it's a treat to see a villain who is truly interesting. And not covered in silly make-up.
Re: Spatula attack!
Date: 2008-06-02 03:01 am (UTC)Re: Spatula attack!
Date: 2008-06-02 03:25 am (UTC)Re: Spatula attack!
Date: 2008-06-02 04:23 am (UTC)(And if it sounds as if I'm jumping ahead of myself, I am. I am behind on my comments. I've finished watching season 3.)
Re: Spatula attack!
Date: 2008-06-02 04:19 am (UTC)Re: Spatula attack!
Date: 2008-06-03 01:53 am (UTC)I do love Spike, Drusilla, and Angelus, but I like the Buffy-Giles relationship arc in season three more. They're so invested in each other, and even though they betray each other their bond only becomes stronger.
I love that everyone makes terrible mistakes in this season, and the mistakes aren't just healed over by the end of each episode. Some of them never get better. Some of Buffy's worst flaws come out in this season, but she remains heroic even so.
In my opinion, this season is all about love -- mistaken, misapplied, given, taken away, longed for. It leads people to do wonderful and terrible things. Best of all, it's the Big Bad's fatal weakness, one that's usually reserved for the hero.
Re: Spatula attack!
Date: 2008-06-03 02:43 am (UTC)I didn't expect to like it, because I don't like David Boreanaz. At all. But I sort of like Angel now, so go figure. I love the Buffy/Angel romance. It's my favourite part of the show, thematically. I love both Giles and Spike more, but they aren't themes, they are characters.
I am not a romantic person, so it's a purely subjective reaction.
While I am probably the most romantic person you will ever meet in the whole of your life. Angel plays to that.
I like the Buffy-Giles relationship arc in season three more.
You mean... with Wesley coming in and such? the birthday thing?
In my opinion, this season is all about love -- mistaken, misapplied, given, taken away, longed for.
Yes. But series 2 was about love, too: Buffy's love for her friends and her mother at odds with her love for Angel.
Fatal weakness - you mean the Mayor's weakness for Faith?
Re: Spatula attack!
Date: 2008-06-03 03:00 am (UTC)That and others. She left, he welcomed her back without reproach. Her betrayal with Angel. Band Candy. The whole mess with Faith killing that man and trying to pin it on Buffy. Earshot.
It all plays into the beginning of season four, as well.
Yes. But series 2 was about love, too: Buffy's love for her friends and her mother at odds with her love for Angel.
Yes, but I thought the theme was more about Buffy's powerlessness against her mother, against Angel, against love, against her fate.
Fatal weakness - you mean the Mayor's weakness for Faith?
Yes. If Buffy hadn't taunted him with the bloody knife he may not have lost his temper and strayed from his plan. Tangentially, that moment of insight of Buffy's is one of the things that makes her the best slayer.
Re: Spatula attack!
Date: 2008-06-03 03:09 am (UTC)I'll get there soon.
Tangentially, that moment of insight of Buffy's is one of the things that makes her the best slayer.
That was good. Generally speaking, the plotting of season 3 was excellent.
Re: Spatula attack!
Date: 2008-06-03 03:02 am (UTC)Re: Spatula attack!
Date: 2008-06-03 03:11 am (UTC)An interesting way to do it!
I'd seen bits and pieces of different episodes back soon after they first aired, but not in any systematic way, and without much memory of it. I don't know whether - or to what extent - that's affecting my viewing. I know that some of my reactions are very much not what I expect - remember that I expected to totally dislike Angel, and I don't. Which is really sort of weird.
Truthfully, I didn't really expect to like Buffy herself, either. And I do.
Re: Spatula attack!
Date: 2008-06-03 04:03 am (UTC)*shrugs* That was the only way that was available to me. I didn't have any kind of access to it--I never had cable in university--until I moved to the US during the original broadcast of season four. I couldn't download, and didn't know anyone with tapes.
Re: Spatula attack!
Date: 2008-06-03 12:23 pm (UTC)Re: Spatula attack!
Date: 2008-06-02 07:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-02 03:56 am (UTC)Because she's been pretty focussed, normally? She does get to go to the Bronze every now and then, but mostly, it is school and slaying.
Cordelia and Buffy bicker. Buffy is moved to run for Homecoming Queen. I roll my eyes in... whatever is the opposite of sympathy. Ego games! Vanity! But I like the line, "You've awakened the Prom Queen within."
But Buffy used to be Cordelia, and misses the Cordelia-Buffy. Yes, she has accepted her proper job (she does seem to have impressive abilities), but she still misses the life she used to have. This is a temporary rebellion. Still merits an eye-roll, of course.
So neither Cordelia nor Buffy becomes Homecoming Queen. Can't say I was disappointed! The girls who won seemed sort of vacuous.
Yeah, that was a reasonable cop-out. Buffy didn't really have a chance. Cordelia was a strong candidate, but had weakened her support by the time spent being with the Scoobies and not being cool. Hard to develop a real character to actually win, and if they did, it would telegraph the outcome.
Yes, I agree, not one of my favorites, but I'm not really into the queen races. We never had them when I was young. Although I guess we did have something for the prom. Forget how they were chosen. Not by voting.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-02 04:31 am (UTC)I realize that; it's not an aspect of her that I much like. I'm glad we know the more mature Buffy, not the pre-Slayer Buffy - if it were her, I wouldn't be watching the show.
This is a temporary rebellion. Still merits an eye-roll, of course.
And a sense that growing up is not a smooth progression to maturity but a journey of fits and starts, where sometimes we had nostalgia for a safer/better past in childhood. A sort of Peter Pan thing. It usually doesn't work out well, but usually we get over it anyway.
I agree, not one of my favorites, but I'm not really into the queen races.
I would have been a little happier if there had been more emphasis on the hunt, on the motley assorted hunters, and the personal tension between Cordelia and Buffy - not for their competition as Homecoming Queen but for the other tensions between them that have to do with Xander's role, with the Slaying, with Cordelia's envy of Buffy and Buffy's of Cordelia. It's as if this episode was skirting around the real issues, and missing the substance there.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-02 09:14 am (UTC)I think it's fair to say she still has issues with what happened.
In a rather superb way. His semi-normality makes him much creepier.
Willow and Xander dance. They kiss. I liked it better when Xander kissed Cordelia. Oz is so much nicer than Xander. Oh, Willow, Willow, bad idea.
Well, yes. It cannot lead to good. Beautiful irony, as it's all she ever dreamed of in S1 - goes to show sometimes our dreams shouldn't come true. Sometimes adolescents just can't fight the hormones though.
I think that's the best bit of the episode.
Yes. I rather enjoyed that character, though he's no Spike.
S
I think that was sort of the point. Buffy and (!) Cordelia have actually grown beyond that sort of thing. Mind you, that's from a perspective of a society that doesn't have such things and doesn't really "get" them. I can't imagine such naked popularity contests operating in British schools - I can see all sorts of potential harm and no educational benefit at all.
I liked this well enough, especially the Germans in the hunt, and Kulak, but the episode as a whole seemed lacking in substance. It had fewer good character bits, and fewer great bits of dialogue, than usual.
Yeah - mostly filler, you could say, but setting up the Mayor, which is non-trivial.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-02 11:54 am (UTC)Well, who wouldn't? I think she's trying to protect herself from further involvement with Angel, trying to put a barrier between them. Of course it doesn't work - the feelings are there, the story about Scott is a lie.
His semi-normality makes him much creepier
He's a wonderful character.
Beautiful irony, as it's all she ever dreamed of in S1 - goes to show sometimes our dreams shouldn't come true.
So very true! And... things change. Circumstances change and our feelings don't always keep up.
Sometimes adolescents just can't fight the hormones though.
It's not just a problem with adolescents. Human nature.
I think that's the best bit of the episode.
Definitely. I liked the villains, I liked the situation. Did you ever see the movie Hard Target? I liked it there, too.
I rather enjoyed that character, though he's no Spike.
In the end, I was sorry Trick wasn't developed more. We really didn't get to know him, and he was interesting. We were left with just the surface impression.
Mind you, that's from a perspective of a society that doesn't have such things and doesn't really "get" them. I can't imagine such naked popularity contests operating in British schools - I can see all sorts of potential harm and no educational benefit at all.
That's pretty much my attitude; I don't know what the rationale is for allowing them.
but setting up the Mayor, which is non-trivial.
Yes. Personally I'd have stuck to the Hunt and skipped the Homecoming.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-02 10:24 pm (UTC)And Scott is too smart not to get that. Angel is Buffy's First Love, the grand romantic passion. She isn't capable of seeing any of his faults that she can't explain away as Angelus.
Very true. Willow has a lot of change to experience, too.
True, but it's at its most untamed at that age.
No, I don't think I have.
We meet a few other interesting vamps who are not developed from time to time. Part of me wonders whether Joss was determined not to let another take over the way Spike did. The other part of me feels that they had the same chance as Spike but didn't quite make the cut, so suffered the fate originally intended for him.
Me too, though the use of the flowers as tracking beacons was neat.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-02 11:27 pm (UTC)Yes. He may not know what's going on, but he knows where Buffy's heart is - and it's not with him and not going to be. Though he loses points for not giving it much of a try. Not that I want him to try harder!
I wonder if Angel realizes from the start that Buffy was lying, trying to let him go. I suspect he did.
Hard Target is a John Woo movie from 1993 in which gorgeous Arnold Vosloo and Lance Henriksen run a sort of safari hunt in Louisiana with human prey, one of which is Jean Claude Van Damme. I enjoyed it thoroughly, probably far more than I should have. Arnold Vosloo is gorgeous.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107076/
Part of me wonders whether Joss was determined not to let another take over the way Spike did
Maybe. There is of course only one Spike. Ever.
Me too, though the use of the flowers as tracking beacons was neat.
Yes, and I liked the way the Hunt moved into the school.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-03 07:16 pm (UTC)Interesting. I just read an interview (http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/cult/a92592/james-marsters-torchwood.html) with JM where he says almost exactly that about Joss.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-04 12:26 am (UTC)Still, what we get is what we get!
no subject
Date: 2008-06-05 08:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-05 08:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-05 08:37 pm (UTC)Some of them it doesn't matter which order, but there are various crossovers where if you miss the set up in one series you are going to miss bits when you watch the other. Or just be really confused.
I don't know how closely the chronology of each ties in during the later seasons because I stopped watching Angel after S2, but I know for these early ones it does.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-05 08:41 pm (UTC)Mind you, with the first episode, I don't think it mattered.
Don't know what I think abut Angel yet, or Angel in it. I found myself disappointed to see Cordelia.
Anthropological detail
Date: 2008-06-02 11:43 am (UTC)At the high school level it's also the football game (at least in Texas, where football is the state religion) and also a formal dance, in the late fall or early winter. The really major formal dance is the Senior Prom, in the late spring toward the end of the school year. (I don't know what 'prom' literally means.)
The prom and to a lesser extent Homecoming are moving toward the spending-planning-and-insanity levels of weddings for some social groups.
Re: Anthropological detail
Date: 2008-06-02 12:15 pm (UTC)Heh - that's not likely to endear me, either. I did go to at least one football game in high school, and was utterly bored, though rather impressed with the athleticism involved.
The prom and to a lesser extent Homecoming are moving toward the spending-planning-and-insanity levels of weddings for some social groups.
All these rituals I tend to avoid. I was married in my apartment, with a few witnesses - mind you, that was because I was sick at the time. I intended to have a 'real' wedding, really! (Scary mental image of Gwen Cooper's wedding comes to mind.)
Re: Anthropological detail
Date: 2008-06-02 07:09 pm (UTC)I never went to an actual Homecoming or Prom dance, thankfully.
Re: Anthropological detail
Date: 2008-06-02 10:57 pm (UTC)Faith as backup
Date: 2008-06-02 12:56 pm (UTC)Re: Faith as backup
Date: 2008-06-02 01:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-02 06:14 pm (UTC)Ah Xander... Xander... he has such an inimitable way with words :)
Kulak's trick with the blades in his arms is very like the blades in the Sleeper's arms in Torchwood.
I was watching an episode of Smallville the other day that I hadn't ever seen before and James Master's character in that played the same kind of stunt and I just sat there with no-one to share the moment...
As a Brit I also have no clue about this thing called Homecoming either *shrugs*
no subject
Date: 2008-06-02 07:04 pm (UTC)When he's good, he's good.
James Master's character in that played the same kind of stunt and I just sat there with no-one to share the moment...
I haven't watched the last couple of seasons of Smallville. I really should go back for the Marsters episodes.
I also have no clue about this thing called Homecoming either
I think it's one of those things that doesn't really translate from one culture to another and we just have to learn what we can about it from shows like Buffy.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-02 07:12 pm (UTC)Me either - it was entirely accidental and I just there going WOW *James* look at you with your wrist-y blade things shooting out and skewering people...
no subject
Date: 2008-06-02 10:58 pm (UTC)I'd like to see the Green Arrow episodes, too. That actor is gorgeous.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-03 07:47 pm (UTC)One thing I liked about Buffy's conversation with Angel was his look when he says "Giles". Not a happy association.
So Buffy and Faith fight - cool.
It's a nice scene that. I like Faith suggesting they go together - and that Buffy gets a little tempted by the idea of using a guy.
We meet the Mayor. The Mayor is... strange
The Mayor is great. I love his line about "Dirt gets trapped there. And germs. And mayonnaise." He has interesting priorities.
Oz is so much nicer than Xander. Oh, Willow, Willow, bad idea.
Total agreement. I do like that they actually went there though because it is finally getting the Willow-Xander thing out. I think they do it quite well too. Plus this makes me laugh:
Xander: We got to get out of these clothes.
Willow: Right now!
Xander: Oh, I didn't mean --
Willow: Me, either!
I love Buffy's approach to Ms Moran for a character reference, who doesn't even remember her
I love that she has a favourite teacher and that her class was history and on, apparently, iconic strong women. I also like that she checks whether she's turning invisible, just in case. It can happen, after all.
Buffy is moved to run for Homecoming Queen. I roll my eyes in... whatever is the opposite of sympathy. Ego games!
Well... not entirely. If Cordelia hadn't said "it involves being a part of the school and having actual friends" I don't think Buffy would have gone for it. Okay, she knows she has friends, but she obviously does not feel part of the school at that point and Cordelia rubs her face in it.
"I am Kulak, of the Miquot Clan."
He was cool. I liked Mr Trick's introduction of him as "whatever the hell you are, my brother, got them spiny looking head things, I never seen that." And the Gorch brother is back, yay! I'd forgotten he reappeared. He was more entertaining with his brother than his wife though.
I always feel bad for Buffy when all the others desert her campaign to help Cordelia, but I like Willow's reason for doing it being overcompensating for guilt. Oz gets by far the best line "As Willow goes so goes my nation.".
Buffy even pressures Willow. She has no shame
I love that. And I like her playing the sad eyes thing with Scott. Ooh, and the escalating confectionary bribes are funny.
It's nice that Giles says, "I want to be here when when Buffy... Well, uh, however the thing turns out for her."
It's sweet. Though his practical joke about there being terrible danger is what I really love.
Buffy tries to explain to Cordelia why she wants to be Homecoming Queen and I still don't get it
Buffy wants to feel a part of her community, ie. the school, and she feels that she isn't. The teachers don't remember her, she isn't in the year book... it makes sense to me even if I think Homecoming queen is a bizarre thing. That's just the way she's expressing the outsider feeling.
Cordelia does well
Sometimes she rocks. I always like in the cabin when she says "you think
if you can get me mad enough I won't be so scared -- and hey, it's working, where's a damn weapon?!"
no subject
Date: 2008-06-04 12:24 am (UTC)I must go back and look at it again.
I like Faith suggesting they go together - and that Buffy gets a little tempted by the idea of using a guy.
I like the sense that Buffy is attracted to Faith and her lifestyle - tempted - but when she gets too close, doesn't like it.
He was more entertaining with his brother than his wife though.
Definitely. She fell a little flat. But then - this episode was much less about him or them, there were so many characters and threads to the plot.
the escalating confectionary bribes are funny.
Yes!
Buffy wants to feel a part of her community, ie. the school, and she feels that she isn't.
And she's trying to recapture he days when she was, or thought she was.
Cordelia really comes out very well in this episode.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-04 08:10 pm (UTC)Yeah. This becomes more overt later - as I'm sure you know by now, judging by some comments above.
Cordelia really comes out very well in this episode.
She does have her moments. On a meta level, I think they're building her up to increase the guilt factor of Willow/Xander.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-04 08:28 pm (UTC)On the whole through season 3, I was disappointed with Cordelia, who seemed to go wherever the plot wanted her to, without any sense of direction or purpose. She remains to my eyes the most underdeveloped character. Buffy and Willow have both changed and grown. Xander has not changed in the least (worse luck) but we have learned more about his character and motivations. Cordelia remains someone cardboard to my eyes, and even more so in Angel "City Of".